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Rackspace Says 'Yes' To Virtualization

Leveraging the ESX experience of subsidiary Mosso, Rackspace is moving beyond 1x1 hosting solutions.
San Antonio-based hosting provider Rackspace is adding a virtualized service offering. Citing increased flexibility, market demand, and a desire to better address customer needs, Rackspace will be offering customers their own, non-shared ESX environments to complement traditional 1x1 server platforms.

Pricing will still be 'per machine' regardless of whether that machine is physical or virtualized. VM hosting rates will be less expensive than physical servers if customers scale to 3-5 VMs per host; Rackspace does not provide exact pricing examples due to the highly variable nature of hosted environments. The company would expect a customer to yield a 10-30% savings running six VMs versus six physical servers. Cost savings plus increased flexibility and a substantially enhanced customer management portal should entice new and old clients to look at virtualizing.

In an interview last week John Engates, CTO, stressed his company's preparation and depth of infrastructure and support services in place to host ESX. Rackspace has five VMware Certified Engineers on staff with ten more in training for certification, as well as their standard 24/7 support providing 'round the clock VMCEs on-call.

ESX solutions will initially be hosted out of Rackspace's Dallas/Fort Worth location, with long-term plans to offer virtualization out of all eight of the company's data centers in Texas, Virginia and the U.K.

Engates touted his company's trademarked 'fanatical support' as the best part of the deal. Rackspace reps, engineers and support staff will hold customers' hands through every step of the hosting process, no VMware expertise required.

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